Minnesota pounded out 15 hits and used a 4-run eighth inning to break open a close game as the Golden Gophers eliminated Wake Forest from the NCAA College Station Regional with an 8-3 victory Sunday afternoon at Blue Bell Park.
The third-seeded Gophers (36-21) advance to face host and top-seed Texas A&M in Sunday's regional championship game at 8 p.m. A win over the Aggies would force a second championship game Monday.
Minnesota scored single runs in the first and third to take an early lead, all while escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the Wake Forest second unscathed by holding the Demon Deacons off the scoreboard.
UM lead 4-2 heading into the eighth before sending nine men to the plate and putting the game out of reach. The big blow of the frame was a full-count, two-run double by Micah Coffey.
Wake, making its first NCAA trip since 2007, saw its season come to an end at 35-27.
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NOTES
—Minnesota advances to the Regional Final for the first time since their last trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2010, when they fell to Cal St. Fullerton. They have reached the NCAA Regional Final in their last three postseason appearances.Â
—Wake Forest falls to 38-25 all time in the NCAA Tournament concluding their first tournament appearance since 2007.Â
—In the fifth all-time meeting, Minnesota bested Wake Forest for the first time bringing the series record to 4-1 in favor of the Demon Deacons.Â
—The game included 24 runners left on base, 12 for each team.Â
—Jordan Smith continues his hot tournament going 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, putting him at 5-for-10 on the tournament with 2 BBs and 2 Homers. He's slugging 1.100 and has a .583 on-base percentage in College Station.
—Wake Forest left five runners on in the first five innings before getting on the board with the sac fly in the fifth. They left 12 on for the ballgame.Â
—Minnesota held Wake Forest to 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and begun the game retiring the first eight until the Sheets' single in the fifth.Â
—Brian Glowicki earned the win for the Gophers his first of the season. The junior tied a career high in strikeouts with four.Â
—The Golden Gopher offense hit 8-for-17 (.471) with two outs compared to Wake's 3-for-12 with two retired.Â
—Austin Athmann of Minnesota found his way on in all five times at the plate. The Junior was aboard in each of the Minnesota scoring frames. Â
—Lucas Gilbreath made his first career start working 4.2 innings allowing nine baserunners but held Wake to just one run.Â
—The top five in the Gopher order hit 12-for-24 on the ballgame reaching in 15 of 27 times at the plate (.556). The 15 hits by the entire order were their most since May 7th against Indiana.
—Gavin Sheets led the Wake Forest offense with a 3-for-5 day tying a career high in hits. He also had two of the three Demon Deacon RBI and a double on the day.Â
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Minnesota quotes
Head coach John Anderson
Opening Statement…
"First of all, once again, I want to congratulate Wake Forest on an outstanding season, outstanding team. We've had two competitive ballgames with them and congratulations to them on their season. We talked after the game last night, about (how) we had some momentum going. I thought we got our offense going again winning the first inning today. We got a one spot up there and put up a zero. I thought we kept some momentum and some confidence and a good feeling on our side of the field. We had lots of chances during the course of the game but obviously we went in there and stayed after it. We're getting more quality at bats up and down the lineup and it's shown in terms of the number of runs that we've scored over the last few ballgames. This gentleman over here, Lucas (Gilbreath), I told him this morning that he was going to start. Probably would have been in our starting plans this season. He had to miss the first five weeks of the season. We got him back and used him in the bullpen. He's built his arm strength up and did an outstanding job of using three pitches out there. Over the course of the ballgame, obviously the turning point of the ballgame was striking out the side there with the bases loaded and kept the score on our side."
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On injury status of senior outfielder Dan Motl …
"I feel for Danny, he's had an outstanding senior year for us. He's had some injuries in his career and finally put together a full season. I feel terrible that he couldn't finish out his campaign here but he's available to pinch-hit. Right now he's limited in terms of what he can do."
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On using Jordan Jess…
"(Brian) Glowicki was done and the game was in balance, so we got him hot. You have to win the game. I have a lot of respect for Wake Forest. They can swing the bat. So you can't just say that with two innings to go that the game is over. We made a decision to get him hot, so I felt like we had to use him."
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Sophomore pitcher Lucas Gilbreath
On the second inning jam…
"I mean obviously, that's not an ideal inning. I'm trying to pitch to contact and they're a good team. You throw a pitch and miss your spot, they're going to hit it. They did a great job all game. They loaded the bases and I kind of changed my approach. Coach came out, kind of calmed me down and I just made some big pitches when I needed to."
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On starting instead of coming out of the bullpen…
"It's a lot more pitches than I've ever thrown, but you only get this opportunity once every so often. So there was a little bit of adrenaline and I just wanted to go out there and compete and go as long as I could and try and save some arms for the team."
Wake Forest quotes
Head coach Tom Walter
Opening Statement…
"First and foremost, congratulations to Minnesota. They played a great game today and deserve to advance obviously. We wish them luck and whoever comes out of these next two games between Texas A&M and them will represent this region well, two first-class programs with good ball clubs who do it the right way. So good luck to both those folks moving forward. Obviously disappointed in the way the season ended. I guess only one team ends the way they want to as the saying goes but just didn't play our best brand of baseball here in the last 24 hours. I thought a lot of last night took a lot out of us emotionally and we just didn't have a whole lot of energy today but other chances come your way and I think through seven innings we were open 13-14 with runners in scoring positions so I had guys in scoring position and just needed to deliver in some of those situations and turn that game the other direction but we never could grab the momentum and Minnesota, give credit to them, their pitcher did a great job. Then, they broke the game open there late on so we could never get it going our way. But again, proud of this team, proud of the way the season they fought all year. Our seniors were fantastic for us to help us turn the corner. Our juniors who we're going to lose in the draft, we'll miss and we know they'll graduate and go on to do great things themselves so excited about the future of this program and players like Gavin Sheets here next to me and our group of incoming kids."
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On team not getting it done in scoring position…
"Yeah, I mean part of that is maybe just being new to the Regional. I think again last night and today when we let things speed up on us a little bit, just got a little overaggressive in those situations instead of being patient. A lot of teams feature off speed stuff in those situations. You've really got to lock in and make sure to get the pitches ahead. If you're overly aggressive, you get yourself behind in the count and give the pitcher a chance to make a great pitch and I think that's a little bit of this season and being in the moment and letting it speed up on us a little too much."
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Sophomore infielder Gavin Sheets
On the team's inability to produce with runners in scoring position this weekend…
"I think that this whole year we've done a great job of doing that and this weekend I think that the pitching that we faced was excellent. The guys made big pitches in big situations so I wouldn't put it on our guys as much as I would applaud the opposing teams for the pitches that they made in situations. I mean didn't matter if it was a fastball, curveball, changeup, they weren't afraid to throw in any situation especially in big situations so credit to them."
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The third-seeded Gophers (36-21) advance to face host and top-seed Texas A&M in Sunday's regional championship game at 8 p.m. A win over the Aggies would force a second championship game Monday.
Minnesota scored single runs in the first and third to take an early lead, all while escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the Wake Forest second unscathed by holding the Demon Deacons off the scoreboard.
UM lead 4-2 heading into the eighth before sending nine men to the plate and putting the game out of reach. The big blow of the frame was a full-count, two-run double by Micah Coffey.
Wake, making its first NCAA trip since 2007, saw its season come to an end at 35-27.
Â
NOTES
—Minnesota advances to the Regional Final for the first time since their last trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2010, when they fell to Cal St. Fullerton. They have reached the NCAA Regional Final in their last three postseason appearances.Â
—Wake Forest falls to 38-25 all time in the NCAA Tournament concluding their first tournament appearance since 2007.Â
—In the fifth all-time meeting, Minnesota bested Wake Forest for the first time bringing the series record to 4-1 in favor of the Demon Deacons.Â
—The game included 24 runners left on base, 12 for each team.Â
—Jordan Smith continues his hot tournament going 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, putting him at 5-for-10 on the tournament with 2 BBs and 2 Homers. He's slugging 1.100 and has a .583 on-base percentage in College Station.
—Wake Forest left five runners on in the first five innings before getting on the board with the sac fly in the fifth. They left 12 on for the ballgame.Â
—Minnesota held Wake Forest to 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and begun the game retiring the first eight until the Sheets' single in the fifth.Â
—Brian Glowicki earned the win for the Gophers his first of the season. The junior tied a career high in strikeouts with four.Â
—The Golden Gopher offense hit 8-for-17 (.471) with two outs compared to Wake's 3-for-12 with two retired.Â
—Austin Athmann of Minnesota found his way on in all five times at the plate. The Junior was aboard in each of the Minnesota scoring frames. Â
—Lucas Gilbreath made his first career start working 4.2 innings allowing nine baserunners but held Wake to just one run.Â
—The top five in the Gopher order hit 12-for-24 on the ballgame reaching in 15 of 27 times at the plate (.556). The 15 hits by the entire order were their most since May 7th against Indiana.
—Gavin Sheets led the Wake Forest offense with a 3-for-5 day tying a career high in hits. He also had two of the three Demon Deacon RBI and a double on the day.Â
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Minnesota quotes
Head coach John Anderson
Opening Statement…
"First of all, once again, I want to congratulate Wake Forest on an outstanding season, outstanding team. We've had two competitive ballgames with them and congratulations to them on their season. We talked after the game last night, about (how) we had some momentum going. I thought we got our offense going again winning the first inning today. We got a one spot up there and put up a zero. I thought we kept some momentum and some confidence and a good feeling on our side of the field. We had lots of chances during the course of the game but obviously we went in there and stayed after it. We're getting more quality at bats up and down the lineup and it's shown in terms of the number of runs that we've scored over the last few ballgames. This gentleman over here, Lucas (Gilbreath), I told him this morning that he was going to start. Probably would have been in our starting plans this season. He had to miss the first five weeks of the season. We got him back and used him in the bullpen. He's built his arm strength up and did an outstanding job of using three pitches out there. Over the course of the ballgame, obviously the turning point of the ballgame was striking out the side there with the bases loaded and kept the score on our side."
Â
On injury status of senior outfielder Dan Motl …
"I feel for Danny, he's had an outstanding senior year for us. He's had some injuries in his career and finally put together a full season. I feel terrible that he couldn't finish out his campaign here but he's available to pinch-hit. Right now he's limited in terms of what he can do."
Â
On using Jordan Jess…
"(Brian) Glowicki was done and the game was in balance, so we got him hot. You have to win the game. I have a lot of respect for Wake Forest. They can swing the bat. So you can't just say that with two innings to go that the game is over. We made a decision to get him hot, so I felt like we had to use him."
Â
Sophomore pitcher Lucas Gilbreath
On the second inning jam…
"I mean obviously, that's not an ideal inning. I'm trying to pitch to contact and they're a good team. You throw a pitch and miss your spot, they're going to hit it. They did a great job all game. They loaded the bases and I kind of changed my approach. Coach came out, kind of calmed me down and I just made some big pitches when I needed to."
Â
On starting instead of coming out of the bullpen…
"It's a lot more pitches than I've ever thrown, but you only get this opportunity once every so often. So there was a little bit of adrenaline and I just wanted to go out there and compete and go as long as I could and try and save some arms for the team."
Wake Forest quotes
Head coach Tom Walter
Opening Statement…
"First and foremost, congratulations to Minnesota. They played a great game today and deserve to advance obviously. We wish them luck and whoever comes out of these next two games between Texas A&M and them will represent this region well, two first-class programs with good ball clubs who do it the right way. So good luck to both those folks moving forward. Obviously disappointed in the way the season ended. I guess only one team ends the way they want to as the saying goes but just didn't play our best brand of baseball here in the last 24 hours. I thought a lot of last night took a lot out of us emotionally and we just didn't have a whole lot of energy today but other chances come your way and I think through seven innings we were open 13-14 with runners in scoring positions so I had guys in scoring position and just needed to deliver in some of those situations and turn that game the other direction but we never could grab the momentum and Minnesota, give credit to them, their pitcher did a great job. Then, they broke the game open there late on so we could never get it going our way. But again, proud of this team, proud of the way the season they fought all year. Our seniors were fantastic for us to help us turn the corner. Our juniors who we're going to lose in the draft, we'll miss and we know they'll graduate and go on to do great things themselves so excited about the future of this program and players like Gavin Sheets here next to me and our group of incoming kids."
Â
On team not getting it done in scoring position…
"Yeah, I mean part of that is maybe just being new to the Regional. I think again last night and today when we let things speed up on us a little bit, just got a little overaggressive in those situations instead of being patient. A lot of teams feature off speed stuff in those situations. You've really got to lock in and make sure to get the pitches ahead. If you're overly aggressive, you get yourself behind in the count and give the pitcher a chance to make a great pitch and I think that's a little bit of this season and being in the moment and letting it speed up on us a little too much."
Â
Sophomore infielder Gavin Sheets
On the team's inability to produce with runners in scoring position this weekend…
"I think that this whole year we've done a great job of doing that and this weekend I think that the pitching that we faced was excellent. The guys made big pitches in big situations so I wouldn't put it on our guys as much as I would applaud the opposing teams for the pitches that they made in situations. I mean didn't matter if it was a fastball, curveball, changeup, they weren't afraid to throw in any situation especially in big situations so credit to them."
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